


Chasing Waterfalls

by actionpackedlips



Series: Hiking Boyfriends [1]
Category: Deadpool (Movieverse), Deadpool - All Media Types, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Gen, Hiking, M/M, Office Setting, One Shot, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, snide gossipy coworkers, something just to make you smile, we need that in these times
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:28:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26869678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/actionpackedlips/pseuds/actionpackedlips
Summary: Based on a prompt found on the Isn't It Bromantic? server, from this tweet:7 years ago I worked at a small company of about 15 people. I sent an email to all my co-workers one Friday, inviting them on a weekend hike. Only one person came, a guy from the web dev team that I'd hardly spoken to.Today is our 6th wedding anniversary. We're going hiking.A complete, fluffy, one shot. (now with a sequel!)
Relationships: Peter Parker/Wade Wilson
Series: Hiking Boyfriends [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1965409
Comments: 11
Kudos: 284
Collections: Isn't it Bromantic?





	Chasing Waterfalls

Peter’s computer pinged with a new incoming email.

He was just about to shut his computer down for the day, having stayed an extra hour to finish his workload before the impending weekend, but felt compelled to check it out instead of wait until Monday. 

Hey, Peter hadn’t gotten this job by being a slacker, that was for sure. Some would say his over achievement was too much, but Peter was inclined to disagree. He enjoyed his job, and liked this new company. A little enthusiasm wasn’t a bad thing, surely?

He clicked open his work email and double clicked the new, awaiting item labeled “Annual Halloway Hike-and-Hang”. 

Peter skimmed the body of the email, intrigued. It looked like a fellow co-worker, a man named Wade, was inviting him (and most of the department, honestly, if by looks of who he sent it to were anything to go by) to the Halloway hiking trails this weekend for a little team building fun tomorrow. Peter was pretty sure he hadn’t met this co-worker yet, and it seemed a little short notice to Peter, considering it was nearing six o clock the friday before, but the email made it seem like this was a regular recurring thing. 

Huh. 

Peter wondered why no one in the office had been talking about it. Anything out of the ordinary or special events were always perfect water cooler gossip. It was odd he hadn’t heard anything about it yet. Then again, Peter wasn’t one to break for more than ten minutes at a time, often skipping lunch to work on his projects, so it wasn’t entirely odd for him to be out of the loop on most things. Like last week, when they’d had a new lunch truck come everyday for “ _employee appreciation week_ ” and Peter hadn’t realized until _Wednesday_. He’d been picking away at wilted salads and eating PB&J sandwiches until he’d watched Sarah walk by with a heaping mound of pulled pork on her plate. Only then had the mouth watering smells made him pop his head up out of his cubicle enough to realize what was going on.

So, it was entirely possible he’d missed the memo on this, too, considering he often kept to himself _and_ he was still relatively the new guy.

He skimmed farther down the email, grinning slightly at the promised “ _n_ _o hiking on an empty stomach! Cold refreshments and snacks provided!_ ” and wondered how many of his co-workers were going. Unfortunately he wouldn't be able to ask anyone now, seeing as he was the last one left in the office for the day. 

Peter, feeling excitement and anticipation bubbling up inside him, booted down his computer and started gathering his things. He wondered if Aunt May still had his Uncle Ben’s old hiking gear. 

* * *

Peter gathered his hiking pack and slammed his car door shut. 

It always took over an hour and a half to get anywhere decently out of the city, but it had been worth it. As Peter drove he traded skyscrapers for fall colored trees, leaves blanketing the roads in a wash of yellow and red. 

He didn’t get out of the city much, but it reminded him of the trips Aunt May and Uncle Ben used to take him on when they went upstate. His uncle had used the very pack he had slung along his back now, and it brought back pleasant memories.

He’d never been to Halloway, though. Peter wasn’t exactly sure where they were meeting, but the signs all pointed in a specific direction so he decided to walk until he saw a group of people. 

The trails were just as bright and cheerful as the drive up, more so up close and personal. It was a nice fall day, and the leaves floated down off their branches in the light breeze, carrying the scent of fresh air and nature. Peter tightened his hands on the straps of his backpack and inhaled deeply, wishing he could bottle it up and take it home; Queens sure as hell could do with a little fresh air.

It didn’t take long to get to the rest station at the end of the trail that sat before the base of the mountain; it had a few spread out picnic tables and a faded pavilion. Peter continued along the bend of the path as more of the area opened up to him, and as he got closer he noticed one man sitting on top of a picnic table, feet on the bench below, a massive pack resting against his knee. 

The gravel beneath Peter’s feet gave him away as he approached and the man looked up at the noise. He was wearing large glasses and a moss green bucket hat, but even that wasn’t enough to cover up the evident scars marring his face. 

Peter stopped, unsure. He hadn’t seen this man around the office, of that he was sure. Was he a part of their group? Or was he a lone hiker? Should he continue on? 

Before he could make a decision the man was waving him over, and as Peter approached the man asked if he was from the company he worked for.

Peter confirmed with a nod, stopping a few feet in front of the seated man. 

Not knowing what else to do, he stuck out his hand and introduced himself.

“Hi,” he smiled tentatively. “I’m Peter.”

“Wade,” the man introduced back with a wide grin as he clasped Peter’s hand and shook. Wade squeezed once, not too hard or overpowering considering his much larger hand, but the texture of his scars felt different along the smooth skin of Peter’s palm, and the feeling almost had him forgetting to give his own firm, friendly handshake in return. 

They let go, and Peter slipped his tingling hand back under the safety of his strap. 

Peter looked around at the empty area. “I hadn’t realized I got here so early.”

Wade shook his head with a small smile ticking up at the corners of his scarred lips. “Oh, you’re on time.”

That confused Peter, but since not everyone in the office owned a car maybe they decided to carpool. That could have caused some delays and made most of them late, he supposed. Peter said as much to Wade.

Wade only hummed. “Could be.”

Peter’s hand fidgeted along his backpack straps. 

“That thing’s nearly as big as you,” Wade said with a small laugh. “Why don’t you set it down while we wait a little bit longer, just in case any others show up? You never know, I’ve experienced one miracle already today.”

Peter wasn’t exactly sure what Wade meant by that last part, but he was right about his pack. It _was_ rather big, even if he could carry it just fine. It wouldn’t hurt to set it down while they waited. He slipped it off one shoulder, then the next, and propped it up against the picnic table. 

Wade patted the open picnic table besides him and Peter hopped up. 

“So you do this every year?” Peter asked, hoping it would spark a conversation. He wasn’t the best at small talk. It was the reason why he was so horrible at office gossip. He just simply didn’t have much to say if the subject didn’t spark his interest. 

Wade nodded. “Yup.”

Peter waited for more elaboration but nothing came. Alright, swing and a miss, Parker.

He leant his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands together between them, fingers twisting. He glanced back at the path he’d come from but no crunch of approaching footsteps could be heard or sight of anyone seen.

Peter tried one last time.

“I haven’t seen you around in our department,” Peter confessed.

Wade threw him a sideways glance before saying, “You probably won’t. I don’t come in much. Work remotely, mostly. When I do come in everyone’s usually gone.”

Peter felt a touch of envy. He loved his job, but coming in early was the pits, and just once he’d like to sleep in and work from home. Sadly, it wasn’t an option for his position.

“You miss a lot of water cooler gossip, I imagine,” Peter joked. 

For some reason Wade thought this was hilarious, if his laugh was anything to go by. 

“I’m sure I do.”

Peter couldn’t help chuckling, too. Wade’s laugh was a tad infectious.

“You’re not alone,” Peter told him with a shrug. “I miss a lot of it too. I’m usually stuck in my cubicle.”

Wade made a noise of interest. “What do you do in the department? A pretty thing like you stuck in a cubicle just doesn’t seem right.”

The compliment took Peter off guard and a flush rose unbidden across Peter’s face. Despite his burning ears, it was like opening Pandora's box. Peter could talk endlessly about his job and what he did, he loved it that much. He wasn’t good at catching himself when rambling, and Wade was doing all the right prompts to encourage his talkativeness; nodding his head, humming, asking questions.

Peter didn’t catch himself until it was nearly half an hour after he’d arrived. He looked down at his watch, then around at the still empty area they were alone in, and frowned. 

He turned to ask Wade what was going on, where everyone was, but Wade was already hopping down off the picnic bench and slinging his massive pack over his equally massive shoulders. 

“Alright, Petey, let’s get this show on the road.”

Peter slipped off the bench, too, but didn’t reach for his pack.

“But, wait. Where is everyone?”

Wade shrugged, jostling his pack. 

Peter’s frown deepened.

“You sent the email rather late,” Peter told him. “Everyone was gone from the office when I opened it. Maybe they didn’t see it?”

Once again Wade just shrugged. “Could have sent it a month ago, it wouldn’t matter. But hey,” he suddenly grinned ear to ear, “one more than last year, so that’s something!”

Peter bent down to retrieve his backpack and slid it over his shoulders as a pang went through him at that distressing information. He looked back at the path not one person had managed to come walking along since he arrived. 

Peter was starting to piece together a picture he wasn’t quite sure he liked.

But that was for later. Right now, he was looking forward to hiking with his new pal Wade.

He shifted the pack higher up on his shoulders and reflected his own grin back.

“Their loss.”

His gain.

* * *

Peter had never been one to despise Monday’s, really. By the end of the weekend he was usually refreshed and ready for the work week to start anew. But coming off the fabulous weekend he’d had, he wished he could have extended it altogether, or at the very least rewind time so it was Saturday again. 

The hike had been _awesome_. 

Wade was oddly goofy and sure, maybe a bit flirty, but great company. He shown Peter the best spots, with the best views; he’d even had them follow a trail that led to a hidden waterfall (a _waterfall!),_ and had set up a delicious feast at lunch for the both of them there (clearly large enough for multiple people, which brought that pang of _something_ through Peter again, and he did his best to keep up with Wade so there weren't many leftovers).

Overall, he’d had a pretty amazing time, more than he imagined, and was thoroughly confused as to why no one else in the department had shown up. 

As he walked in through the company's doors bright and early, and made his way up to the fifth floor to his department, he vowed to ask one of his cubicle neighbors. 

He didn’t have to ask to find out though because once the elevator doors opened, and he walked the path to his desk, he heard the beginnings of raging gossip twittering around him.

“Did you get the email?” He heard a woman named Cynthia ask her neighbor in a conspiratorial whisper, and Peter slowed down, pretending to adjust his messenger bag as he passed, eavesdropping.

“You know we all did,” another woman replied haughtily from her own cubicle, a voice Peter didn’t recognize, as her nails clacked along the keyboard to log into her computer. “He does this every year.” 

“Did you go?” Cynthia asked.

She scoffed at the question as if it was the stupidest thing she’d heard all morning. 

“I’m still here, aren’t I? _Of course_ I didn’t go!”

Peter couldn’t help the frown that tugged at his lips as he continued on, their tittering laughter echoing behind him. 

His desk was farther down the hall and to the right, smack in the middle of a sea of grey cubes. He made it there, hearing snippets of conversation as he passed, all seeming to focus on the email they’d received last Friday.

Peter set his coffee mug on the coaster on his desk and slipped his messenger bag off his shoulder to safely store under his desk. He sat down on his computer chair, aiming to boot up his computer. As his screen lit up he heard the creaking of wheels and suddenly his coworker across from him was there.

Peter looked over across the way and gave a tired smile.

“Morning Dennis,” he greeted. 

Dennis nodded, his typical morning greeting. 

That was all Peter would likely get for a few more hours. Dennis wasn’t a morning person.

Apparently, that is, unless gossip was involved.

He let out a deep, incredulous laugh. “What’s _with_ this guy?” Dennis seemed to ask himself.

“Parker,” Dennis' voice rose to get his attention. “Did you check your email?”

Peter, having a suspicion about what he was on about, replied, “I was just getting to that, actually. Why?”

“You gotta read it,” Dennis urged. “It’s this creepy guy in Web Development. _Seriously_ , he’s not even really in our department, but somehow he’s still included. Every year he sends out an invite to the whole department to go hiking up at Halloway.”

Peter, not seeing anything wrong _or_ creepy with that, told him, “Sounds fun.”

Dennis snorted. “You’d think, but it’s _way_ _weird_ that he does it, and as far as I know no one goes.”

Peter opened his mouth to say “I went _”_ and “why is it weird?” but was interrupted by Sarah, the woman who occupied the desk behind him, coming up to lean an arm over the chest-height cubicle wall.

“Oh, we totally forgot to mention Crazy Wade.”

Peter looked up at her, eyebrows furrowed. Crazy Wade? Wade didn’t seem crazy. He seemed overzealous and excitable. He talked a lot, but Peter didn’t mind; he often had interesting things to talk about, and made Peter laugh. Peter might have caught him muttering to himself at times, but hadn’t really thought anything of it. Peter often talked to himself if no one was around, because who else was going to keep him in line? It wasn’t anything he’d deem _crazy_.

“Yeah,” Dennis agreed. “It feels like you’ve been here forever, I forgot you’re still kinda new. We totally forgot to mention Crazy Wade’s Weekend to you. I could have sworn they’d put that in the welcome packet by now.”

Sarah chuckled along with him as she blew on her steaming mug of coffee.

Peter frowned. That had been ruder than he’d expect out of either of them, but it wasn’t like Peter knew them all that well, really. Maybe they were always this harsh and judgemental, and if so he didn’t really want to keep chatting with them.

Again, before he could say something, Dennis continued on.

“He does this every year, usually around the same time, like clockwork. He’s always trying to get us to do random outings with him throughout the year, but,” he looked around as if to make sure Wade wasn’t lurking about, “Dean heard from Bob who heard from Tiffany in accounting who heard from Leonard in HR that he used to _kill people_. For _money._ ”

Peter’s eyebrows raised. “You don’t mean—”

“ _Like a mercenary_ ,” Sarah whispered with a nod, leaning closer over the partition. “I totally see it, too. With those arms?”

Dennis looked at her in disbelief. 

Sarah blushed as she defended herself, “What? I’m just being honest. It’s scary how big he is! And those scars?”

Peter had heard enough.

“Wade may be big, but he’s not scary. I had a great time hiking with him, he’s actually hilarious. And his scars—that’s not something I judge someone on,” his tone conveyed they shouldn’t either. 

Sarah glanced away, looking at least a little guilty to be judging someone she hardly knew so harshly.

Dennis looked at Peter oddly.

“You actually went hiking with him?”

“Yes,” Peter nodded, unashamed. “And I had a great time. Honestly, I think you guys would have, too.”

Dennis shook his head in disbelief. “Hey, that’s your choice, Peter, but I’ll pass. By all means, keep hanging out with the guy, but when you go missing he’s the first person I’d suspect.”

Peter scowled. “I’m not going to go missing.”

Peter glanced up at Sarah, who had a look similar to Dennis’ on her face. 

Dennis opened his mouth to say something in reply but this time, Peter didn’t let him. “I have a deadline I have to meet today, so I really need to get back to work.” If his tone came out a little icier than intended, well, served them right for talking about Wade that way.

Sarah took a sip of coffee, turning to leave, when she choked on the inhale and gave a few sputtering coughs. Peter, however agitated, still stood up to pat her on the back.

His own breath left him when he saw what had made her react that way.

Wade, dressed strikingly in business casual, was walking his way towards Peter’s section of cubicle. Whispers and heads peeking out over the tops of partitions followed in his wake.

He looked like a rugged GQ model, with the pull of his shirt across his behemoth chest and the overhead lighting deepening his scars.

“Hey Petey,” came his deep, friendly rumble. Peter couldn’t help but stare as Wade stood in front of him, smiling charmingly, messenger bag hanging off one shoulder.

“I had fun Saturday,” he continued, eyes only on Peter, with a curve to his lips.

Peter smiled back, small and secretive, and felt like the only one in the room as those electric, blue eyes focused on him.

“Let’s do it again sometime,” Wade winked, and although it should have looked weird due to the pull of his scars, and lack of eyebrow, Peter felt himself grow warm at the gesture. Voice lost, he could only give a tiny nod of his head.

Wade seemed amused by his reaction. “Awesome possum. Catch ya later!”

With that he lifted a large hand in a wave and continued down the hallway, chuckling. Peter watched Wade walk away until he turned a corner, out of sight.

Peter glanced between Sarah and Dennis. 

Sarah’s jaw was hanging wide open, head turned in the direction Wade had left in, coffee dangling dangerously loose in her hand. Dennis just looked flabbergasted.

Peter smirked at their reactions and sat back down, wheeling his computer chair in closer to his desk.

He clicked on his email and opened up a fresh, blank message.

Suddenly he had the biggest urge to go hiking.

He knew just the man he wanted to invite. 


End file.
